1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an interference check result displaying method and an interference check result displaying apparatus as well as a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon suitable for use to display a result of interference checking processing between a plurality of objects constructed in a virtual three-dimensional space set on a computer.
2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, use of a design technique which employs three-dimensional CAD in designing of equipments, apparatus and so forth has been increasing. In designing wherein such three-dimensional CAD is employed, it is essentially required to perform a check of interference between objects constructed in a virtual three-dimensional space set on a computer before the designed objects are actually manufactured for trial.
An interference checking function in three-dimensional CAD requires much time for processing. Therefore, the following method is used. In particular, an interference check is performed in a stationary condition of object models of an interference check subject, and after completion of the interference checking processing, a result of it is displayed on a monitor or the like for confirmation. Further, where an object model rotates or moves, a movement of the object is defined in advance, and an interference check is performed for each predetermined movement amount of the object model. After all interference checking processing is completed, a result of the processing is displayed on a monitor or the like for confirmation.
For a technique for confirmation of a result of an interference check, only a technique is used wherein a shared or common space (volume) between object models between which interference is found is displayed on a monitor or the like. Further, for a method of displaying a result of an interference check, particularly a technique of displaying an outer profile of a shared space by line drawing or in a different color, another technique of displaying only a shared space and some other techniques are used.
FIG. 22 illustrates a known interference check result displaying method and illustrates a screen displaying condition of an interference portion displaying apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54792/1997. Referring to FIG. 22, according to the known interference check result displaying method illustrated, an interference portion (shared space) between object models is displayed in a screened display. If it is discriminated that the interference portion is so small that it is very difficult to confirm the interference part, a region of a predetermined shape surrounding the interference part such as a circle, a rectangular parallelepiped or a polygon is plotted to display the interference part centered at an interference part representative point (one of the point of the center of gravity of the interference part, the point of the center of the figure and an arbitrary apex) on a monitor 1,000, and the interference portion is displayed in an enlarged scale (refer to reference numeral 1,001 of FIG. 22) or child screens 1,002 of the interference part as viewed in a plurality of directions (a two-dimensional screen as viewed from the front, a side or the top) are displayed (refer to the right upper side of FIG. 22). Further, where two or more interference portions are involved, a result of an interference check is displayed in a balloon display in accordance with the necessity.
In recent years, as a method of an interference check, a very high speed interference checking system has become used wherein an object model is represented as a plurality of planar surface polygons and, as a result of interference checking processing, interference points or nearest points are calculated on grating points, sides or polygon faces of the polygons, and when contact/interference occurs, the interference points or nearest points are returned as a check result.
By such a high speed interference checking method as described above, movement or rotation of an object, an interference check and displaying of a result of the interference check can be performed in approximately several cycles or several tens cycles per one second. Consequently, operations which have not conventionally been performed very much because much time is required for interference checking processing such as an operation of performing an interference check while moving or rotating an object arbitrarily to confirm an interfering portion on the real time basis have begun to be performed.
In order to confirm a condition of an interfering portion where the positional relationship between object models varies and is displayed every time, an interference check result displaying method which allows easy confirmation of an interference condition between object models and is suitable for a system having a displaying function which allows high speed switching is demanded.
However, the interference check result displaying method described above is a result displaying method as one of techniques for determining an interference portion (shared space) between object models and has been invented from the point of view of how to facilitate observation of a shared space determined as a result of an interference check. Therefore, the interference check result displaying method has a subject to be solved in that, when an interference check is performed while an object model is moved or rotated arbitrarily in a virtual three-dimensional space and a result of the interference checking processing is displayed on the real time basis, the position and so forth of an interfering portion displayed on the display unit cannot be discriminated readily.
Also a displaying method is demanded which allows, when a plurality of interference portions (representative points) are present and a particular one of the representative points is designated, the designated representative point to be distinguished on the display from the other representative points or allows a plurality of representative points to be confirmed successively. Further, where a plurality of representative points are present, since the possibility is high that representative points other than a designated particular representative point may be hidden and blocked by the displayed object models, also an interference check result displaying method which allows easy confirmation of representative points hidden by such object models is demanded.
Also a displaying method is demanded which is suitable for substantially real time supervision not of interference but of variation of the positional relationship between particular objects when any of the objects is moved or rotated.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an interference check result displaying method and an interference check result displaying apparatus as well as a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon which are improved to allow easy recognition of a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which contact/interference occurs.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an interference check result displaying method and an interference check result displaying apparatus as well as a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon which are improved to allow, also where such a real time performance as to perform an interference check while an object is moved or rotated, easy recognition of a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which contact/interference occurs.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an interference check result displaying method and an interference check result displaying apparatus as well as a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon which are improved to allow, also where a plurality of representative points are present, recognition of a designated representative point from other representative points.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an interference check result displaying method and an interference check result displaying apparatus as well as a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon which are improved to allow easy confirmation of representative points which are hidden by different objects.
In order to attain the objects of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying method for displaying, as a result of interference checking processing performed between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, a representative point when contact/interference between the objects occurs on a display unit, comprising the step of displaying a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which contact or interference occurs between the objects in the virtual three-dimensional space simultaneously on the display unit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon for causing a computer to realize an interference checking function for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display controlling function for controlling so that, when a result of the interference checking processing by the interference checking function reveals that contact or interference occurs between the objects in the virtual three-dimensional space, a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which the contact or interference occurs between the objects are displayed simultaneously.
With the interference check result displaying method and the computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon, since a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which contact or interference occurs between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space are displayed simultaneously, there is an advantage that occurrence of contact or interference can be recognized readily and the precise position of the representative point can be recognized.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying method for displaying a result of interference checking processing performed between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space on a display unit, comprising the step of displaying a variable shape which represents a distance or a relationship between nearest points of the objects as the result of the interference checking processing together with at least one of an index to a position at which contact between the objects occurs, another index to a range in which interference occurs and a further index to a range designated in advance within a range within which contact or interference does not occur.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon for causing a computer to realize an interference checking function for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display controlling function for controlling so that a variable shape which represents a distance between nearest points of the objects as a result of the interference checking processing together with at least one of a distance of a range in which contact between the objects occurs, a distance of another range in which interference occurs and a further distance range designated in advance is displayed.
With the interference check result displaying method and the computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon, since a variable shape which represents a distance or a relationship between nearest points of the objects as a result of an interference check is displayed together with at least one of an index to a position at which contact between the objects occurs, another index to a range in which interference occurs and a further index to a range designated in advance within a range within which contact or interference does not occur, when an interference check is performed while an object is moved and a result of the interference check is displayed, a condition of a distance or a relationship between nearest points of the objects can be visually discerned readily, and a manner in which contact/interference occurs can be supervised continuously. Consequently, there is an advantage that the manner thus supervised can be reflected rapidly on a design change and so forth and the time for designing can be reduced.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying method for displaying, as a result of interference checking processing performed between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, a representative point when contact/interference between the objects occurs on a display unit, comprising the steps of designating, when the result of the interference checking processing performed reveals that a plurality of representative points appear, one of the representative points as a particular point, displaying the particular point in such a manner as to allow distinction thereof from the other representative points, calculating a cross section on the display with reference to a viewpoint for viewing the particular point in the virtual three-dimensional space and regions which the objects occupy in the virtual three-dimensional space, and displaying the particular point together with the calculated cross section on the display.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon for causing a computer to realize, an interference checking function for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display controlling function for controlling so that, when a result of the interference checking processing by the interference checking function reveals that contact or interference occurs between the objects, a representative point at which the contact or interference occurs is displayed, the display controlling function including a discrimination allowing display controlling function for controlling so that, when the interference checking processing reveals that a plurality of representative points appear and one of the representative points is designated as a particular point, the particular point is displayed in such a manner as to allow distinction thereof from the other representative points to allow confirmation of the particular point, a cross section calculation function for calculating a cross section on the display with reference to a viewpoint for viewing the designated particular point in the virtual three-dimensional space and regions which the objects occupy in the virtual three-dimensional space, and a cross section and particular point displaying function for controlling so that the particular point is displayed together with the cross section on the display calculated by the cross section calculation function.
With the interference check result displaying method and the computer-readable recording medium having an interference check result displaying program recorded thereon, when a result of interference checking processing performed reveals that a plurality of representative points appear, one of the representative points is designated as a particular point and the particular point is displayed in such a manner as to allow distinction thereof from the other representative points and then a cross section on the display is calculated with reference to a viewpoint for viewing the particular point in the virtual three-dimensional space and regions which the objects occupy in the virtual three-dimensional space and the particular point is displayed together with the calculated cross section on the display. Consequently, there is an advantage that a condition of contact/interference at the particular point can be confirmed readily and can be reflected rapidly on a design change and so forth and the time for designing can be reduced.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying apparatus, comprising an interference checking unit for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display control unit for controlling a display so that, when a result of the interference checking processing by the interference checking unit reveals that contact or interference occurs between the objects in the virtual three-dimensional space, a rough position and a precise position of a representative point at which the contact or interference occurs are displayed simultaneously.
With the interference check result displaying apparatus, since it includes the interference checking unit and the display control unit which controls the display so that a rough position and a precise position of a representative point are displayed simultaneously, there is an advantage that occurrence of contact or interference can be recognized readily and a precise position of the representative point can be recognized.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying apparatus, comprising an interference checking unit for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display control unit for controlling a display so that a variable shape which represents a distance between nearest points of the objects as a result of the interference checking processing performed by the interference checking unit together with at least one of an index to a position at which contact between the objects occurs, another index to a range in which interference occurs and a further index to a range designated in advance within a range within which contact or interference does not occur is displayed as the result of the interference checking processing.
With the interference check result displaying apparatus, since it includes the interference checking unit and the display control unit which controls the display so that a variable shape which represents a distance between nearest points of the objects together with at least one of an index to a position at which contact between the objects occurs, another index to a range in which interference occurs and a further index to a range designated in advance within a range within which contact or interference does not occur is displayed, when an interference check is performed while an object is moved and a result of the interference check is displayed, a condition of a distance or a relationship between nearest points can be visually discerned readily, and a manner in which contact/interference occurs can be supervised continuously. Consequently, the interference check result displaying apparatus is advantageous in that the manner thus supervised can be reflected rapidly on a design change and so forth and the time for designing can be reduced.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interference check result displaying apparatus, comprising an interference checking unit for performing interference checking processing between objects present in a virtual three-dimensional space, and a display control unit for controlling a display unit so that, when a result of the interference checking processing performed by the interference checking unit reveals that contact or interference occurs between the objects, a representative point at which the contact or interference occurs is displayed on the display unit, the display control unit including a discrimination allowing display control unit for controlling the display unit so that, when the interference checking processing reveals that a plurality of representative points appear and one of the representative points is designated as a particular point, the particular point is displayed in such a manner as to allow distinction thereof from the other representative points to allow confirmation of the particular point, and a cross section calculation unit for calculating a cross section on the display with reference to a viewpoint for viewing the designated particular point in the virtual three-dimensional space and regions which the objects occupy in the virtual three-dimensional space, the display control unit controlling the display unit so as to display the particular point together with the cross section on the display calculated by the cross section calculation unit.
With the interference check result displaying apparatus, since the display control unit which includes the discrimination allowing display control unit which controls the display unit so that the particular point is displayed in such a manner as to allow distinction thereof from the other representative points and the cross section calculation unit which calculates a cross section on the display controls the display unit so that the particular point is displayed together with the cross section on the display calculated by the cross section calculation unit, the interference check result displaying apparatus is advantageous in that a condition of contact/interference at the particular point can be confirmed readily and can be reflected rapidly on a design change and so forth and the time for designing can be reduced.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements denoted by like reference symbols.